I opened my Secret Santa package and I'm ecstatic! These are such absolutely cool coins! Thank you so much, Secret Santa! First the coins and then more gushing.
Greece Selge (Pisidia) Chalcon 200-100 BCE - that's Hercules on the obverse.
Hercules! Wow! And it's over 2000 years old - amazing!
Rome: Emperor Constantine I, AE18. 333-335 CE - minted in Alexandria, Egypt. That city has mostly sunk into the Mediterranean Sea since this coin was minted. Unbelievable that I'm holding in my hands a coin
that old in such great condition!
Rome: Emperor Severus Alexander, Side mint (Pamphylia) AE23 222-223 CE. Another amazing coin. Pamphylia is in southern Anatolia (Turkey) on the Mediterranean.
Byzantine Empire: Emperor Phocas AE Half Follis Constantinople mint 602-610 CE. This dude was not a nice guy. I wasn't familiar with him, but it seems that he got what he deserved. This part of history was never covered in any class I ever took, so this is all unfamiliar to me.
Again, many thanks to Secret Santa! Ancient coins are so far out of my wheelhouse that I couldn't even see them from here. It took me quite a while to figure out what all of these coins are, despite the detailed descriptions that Santa wrote on the envelopes. I didn't know what AE meant, or a follis, or the emperors, or the mints. This has been an incredible learning experience. I have more detailed notes that I wrote in addition to Santa's, and I hope that I got it all correct here.
And again, it just amazes me that I'm holding coins that are literally ancient - it's overwhelming! And the history embodied by each of them is incredible. Hercules!!! I'm literally ecstatic, and it's not just the pot of coffee I've already had this morning.
When I was a kid I got a France 50 Centimes 1923 and thought that it was fascinating because it was
so old and from
so far away. Well, these gifts have rekindled that sense of wonderment in me. I contemplate the history these coins experienced. Who was first paid with it, and for what purpose? What did they buy with it? What are the paths it took over the many years since then to get all the way to me? What were all of the people like who used it, what were their concerns? My imagination really wanders when I think about all of this.
Secret Santa, you not only hit a home run, but it was a grand slam to win game 7 of the World Series. Thank you again - this is undoubtedly the best gift that I will get this year. You've set a really high bar for the rest of us Santas.
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Posted 12/17/2025 7:23 pm
The gift was wrapped inside with a very nice card, some yummy gold coins, and two packages:
Thank you very much, Santa! 
